If there's one thing that the racers of Midnight Club: Los Angeles love more than tearing through LA's streets at 100-plus miles an hour, it's talking smack. From the second they roll up to the starting line until the last racer crosses the finish, it's a non-stop barrage of trash talk and head games.

That's an attitude that comes straight from the developers themselves. Rockstar just can't help mentioning that bikes are available in the core version of MCLA, not as a DLC add-on, an unmistakable dig at Burnout Paradise. And they don't call MCLA a Need for Speed killer. They say that "their series was already dying; we just wanted to finish the job!"

With that kind of attitude, Rockstar is practically begging for someone to come along and eat its lunch. But that's going to be easier said than done. Rockstar created the open-world street racing genre, and with MCLA, they've perfected it.

This Is Los Angeles

Unlike previous games in the franchise, MCLA has only one city: an incredibly detailed recreation of Los Angeles, with a 24-hour day/night cycle and dynamic weather patterns. It's three times larger than the series' previous largest city, and it's as impressive as GTA4's Liberty City, featuring dozens of real-world landmarks for you to speed past.


And speed is the name of the game. MCLA's sense of velocity is breathtaking. The graphics are practically photorealistic, and the framerate remains consistently as smooth and high as Snoop Dogg, who joins G-Unit, Young Jeezy, NAS, and Nine Inch Nails on a soundtrack that feels truly LA.

Best of all, there are no load times in single-player mode. Between races, the game zooms out to an overhead view of the entire city and then zooms in on the start of the race. It takes no more than a couple of seconds, keeping the game's momentum up and your adrenaline high.

Easily frustrated racers beware: There's a fairly steep spike in difficulty between each level of races, and the high-end rides they require demand precise control. But by the time you can afford those vehicles, you've racked up enough experience to be able to handle them.